island full of wonders. It lay spread out in the ocean "like a disk,
with the mountains rising from it." (Ibid.) On the highest point of this
mountain dwelt Zeus (the king), "while the mansions of the other deities
were arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain.
These deities, including Zeus, were twelve in number: Zeus (or Jupiter),
Hera (or Juno), Poseidon (or Neptune), Demeter (or Ceres), Apollo,
Artemis (or Diana), Hephaestos (or Vulcan), Pallas Athena (or Minerva),
Ares (or Mars), Aphrodite (or Venus), Hermes (or Mercury), and Hestia
(or Vesta)." These were doubtless the twelve gods from whom the
Egyptians derived their kings. Where two names are given to a deity in
the above list, the first name is that bestowed by the Greeks, the last
that given by the Romans.

It is not impossible that our division of the year into twelve parts is
a reminiscence of the twelve gods of Atlantis. Diodorus Siculus tells us
that among the Babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each
personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a
certain month of the year. The Hindoos had twelve primal gods, "the
Aditya." Moses erected twelve pillars at Sinai. The Mandan Indians
celebrated the Flood with twelve typical characters, who danced around
the ark. The Scandinavians believed in the twelve gods, the Aesir, who
dwelt on Asgard, the Norse Olympus. Diligent investigation may yet
reveal that the number of a modern jury, twelve, is a survival of the
ancient council of Asgard.

"According to the traditions of the Phoenicians, the Gardens of the
Hesperides were in the remote west." (Murray's "Manual of Mythology," p.
258.) Atlas lived in these gardens. (Ibid., p. 259.) Atlas, we have
seen, was king of Atlantis. "The Elysian Fields (the happy islands) were
commonly placed in the remote west. They were ruled over by Chronos."